Syria linked to PM's assassination

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THE United Nations investigation into the murder of former
Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri is focusing on the powerful
brother-in-law of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a diplomat with
intimate knowledge of the inquiry said.

The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity as the long-awaited
UN report on the killing, published on Thursday, said that it was a
carefully planned act organised by high-ranking Syrian and Lebanese
intelligence officers.

The diplomat said that investigators were focusing on Syria's
military intelligence chief Asef Shawkat, who is married to Mr
Assad's sister.

Mr Hariri and 15 others died when a bomb blew up his six-car
convoy in Beirut on February 14. In the 54-page report, chief UN
investigator Detlev Mehlis concludes that the bombing "could not
have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security
officials and could not have been further organised without the
collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese security
forces".

The report says that Syrian authorities, after initially
hesitating to help, co-operated "to a limited degree", but several
individuals tried to mislead investigators "by giving false or
inaccurate statements". Even a letter addressed to the commission
by Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa "proved to contain
false information", it adds.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said yesterday he would extend
Mr Mehlis' inquiry, which has already led to the arrest of four
high-level Lebanese officials, to December 15.

General Shawkat is considered the second most powerful man in
Syria and has been seen as a likely candidate to take over the
country if Mr Assad were removed from office.

The Hariri assassination followed a "growing conflict" between
the former premier and Syria, the report says. Tensions came to a
head during a 15-minute meeting between Mr Hariri and Mr Assad on
August 26, 2004. Mr Assad informed Mr Hariri that he wanted to
extend the term of Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, in defiance of
the Lebanese constitution.

Mr Hariri's son, Saad al-Din, told investigators that Mr Assad
had warned: "This extension is to happen or else I will break
Lebanon over your head."

In a taped conversation between Mr Hariri and Syrian Deputy
Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem on February 1, Mr Mouallem warned
Mr Hariri that Syrian security services had him cornered and not to
"take things lightly". Two weeks later, Mr Hariri was dead.

The report lists mobile phone records that show close,
street-by-street observation of Mr Hariri's convoy by people
planning the killing. It also says a telecommunications antenna
near the crime scene had been tampered with. The report said the
van containing the bomb had earlier been seen in a Syrian base in
Lebanon.

As the probe tightened this month, Syrian Interior Minister
Ghazi Kanaan  who for two decades virtually ruled Lebanon
 was found dead in his Damascus office, shot in the mouth
with his own pistol.

Syria's official news agency announced it was a suicide. But the
UN investigators cast doubt on this, suspecting he was either
killed by Syrian Government agents or forced to kill himself.